In order to increase the consumption of local food and impact the local economy, Rural Oxford Economic Development Corporation developed a set of thirteen canning classes, four PD Day Camps for youth, and eight culinary classes to teach canning and preserving fresh local food. Hundreds of participants signed up and classes sold out. Learn how to create and promote these popular courses in your community by reading the toolkit.

Read the It's In Our Roots toolkit to creating popular local food canning and preserving classes

For their local food literacy project, Forest Meets Farm, Roots to Harvest created and led a series of four hands-on, experiential workshops designed for four local high schools. The workshops explore the many aspects of our local food system, highlighting foraging, hunting and fishing, farming and preserving. The youth learned to celebrate the wild and cultivated foods of Northern Ontario as the project engaged community partners and indigenous knowledge keepers.

Find the toolkit with lesson plans and recipes here

Watch the first webinar on the project: An Overview and The Curriculum

Watch the final webinar on the project: Evaluation Findings and Toolkit

Victorian Order of Nurses Windsor-Essex through their community support program Ontario Student Nutrition Program, created a series of local food literacy materials for introducing students and their parents/caregivers to local Ontario produce. Each Tasty Ontario Tuesday for 8 weeks a new local item was featured.

Each week’s materials contain:

• storage and selection tips, nutrition info
• kid-friendly healthy recipes
• trivia, local farm pics, and games!

Find the 8 week set of Tasty Ontario Tuesdays materials here

Packed with hands-on tips and resources from local food educators, Sustain Ontario’s series of 5 webinars provide:

• A wide range of ideas for how to get students (elementary and high school) excited about local food
• Curriculum connections for various grade levels and subject areas (including math, science, social studies, and health & physical education) and includes sample lesson plans and activities
• Tip sheets and access to high-quality, ready to use resources

See below for links and descriptions.